The Enhancing Audio Description II project seeks to explore the potential of sound design practices and spatial audio to provide accessible film and television experiences for visually impaired audiences. It fuses audio technology and creativity to widen the notion of media accessibility and increase the quality and quantity of provision, providing cutting edge techniques to the UK cultural sector.
Enhancing Audio Description II: implementing accessible, personalised and inclusive film and television experiences for visually impaired audiences, is a project that proposes a new paradigm in accessible experiences, in which there is not an overreliance on a narrator's spoken word, as in traditional Audio Description practices. Instead it utilises new accessibility features that include: the addition of sound effects, the spatialisation of dialogue and sounding objects, and first-person narration, to provide accessible experiences that are seamlessly integrated to the soundtrack of a film or television programme. These techniques are integrated into film and television workflows from the development phase up to final delivery.
The project builds up from previous research which demonstrated the success of these methods, and explores them even further, by concentrating on the conveyance of cinematographic elements through sound, the exploration of the intricacies of using first-person narration across different genres and different cast sizes, as well as exploring how spatialisation techniques can be adapted for multi-listener scenarios for a variety of loudspeaker formats. The exploration of these methods will be conducted with an end-user centred approach, in which visually impaired audiences are consulted from the design process up to delivery. Furthermore, the project explores the creation of guidelines that will allow the incorporation of these methods to professional broadcasting pipelines and film workflows, by collaborating with a Project Advisory Panel representative of the different roles in film and television as well as end users.
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On 29 March 2022, Fern Lulham discussed our project on BBC Radio 4 on the In Touch programme. The programme also inserted sections of the interview she did with Mariana for Digital Planet last November and an extract from Pearl. Find out more.
In this post, you can watch our short film Shelf Life and read about why we made it. Find out more.
On 22 February 2022, Mariana gave a talk titled 'Accessibility through Sound Design; an introduction to Enhanced Audio Description' at the Perth Web Accessibility Camp 2022 event. Find out more.
On 08 February 2022, the interview Mariana recently did for BBC World Service's Digital Planet radio show was broadcast. The interview starts 21 minutes in. Find out more.
Pearl is a short film (Palumbo, 2014) whose soundtrack was redesigned as part of our project in 2016. The soundtrack uses the EAD principles to provide an accessible experience for visually impaired audiences, that is based on creative sound design practices, including binaural audio and first person narration. Find out more.
On 20 December 2021, the new blog titled AUDIO DESCRIPTION, Research and Practice by Michael Achtman launched with an article featuring our project. Find out more.
On 18 November 2021, RNIB Connect Radio interviewed Mariana in their 1023th episode titled The Future of Audio Description? Find out more.
On 1 November 2021, Tech Explore published an article featuring our project titled Researchers Develop New Methods to Enhance Film Experience for Visually Impaired. audiences. Find out more.
On 1 November 2021, Tech Explore published an article featuring our project titled Researchers Develop New Methods to Enhance Film Experience for Visually Impaired. audiences. Find out more.
Our team carries out focus groups, interviews and other sessions on a regular basis. If you are visually impaired and are interested in participating you can sign up to our participants' mailing list below to find out about the opportunities available.
